The present invention relates to bug dispensers and specifically to live cricket dispensers as used for example, by fishermen as live bait.
It is common knowledge that such live bait as crickets is rather costly and various devices have been offered on the market to reduce the number of dispensed crickets to one at a time, while reducing the possibility Of other crickets which are held in one container of escaping through an opening by which access to the holding chamber is achieved. Some of the known devices provided for a one-way access reduced diameter chamber into which a cricket would crawl and from which the fisherman would withdraw a cricket by hooking while it is still in the reduced diameter chamber. Many of these devices though suffer from one major drawback. The cricket must be manipulated by hand or the trap door, which encloses the reduced diameter chamber, must be manually operated.
Other devices provide for the use of a plug which closes the opening to the reduced diameter section, so that the plug has to be removed and the cricket is pulled out from the restricted diameter chamber.
Still other known devices allow the cricket to escape from the reduced diameter chamber into the holding chamber, thereby causing a delay in withdrawing a single cricket from the dispenser, thereby making the cricket dispenser difficult to operate and not attractive in the eyes of a fisherman.
Many of the devices have also not used the fact that crickets are incapable of climbing on a smooth surface and, once caught in a chamber which has smooth walls, are incapable of returning back to the larger holding chamber.
Another characteristic of a cricket's behavior which has not been taken into consideration previously is the fact that when the cricket moves forward, it touches objects in front of him with his antennas and, once an obstacle forming a narrow passage is sensed by its antennas, the cricket stops its movement. It has also been observed that the cricket cannot move backwards if his hind legs touch an obstacle behind the cricket.
Further disadvantages of the currently known devices lies in the fact that the dispensing containers cannot be securely held in a boat in close proximity to a fisherman, such that when the boat rolls or pitches, the dispenser, if not securely retained in a special place, rolls away from the fisherman, causing frustration and the necessity to retrieve the dispenser to continue fishing.
Further disadvantage of the now available cricket dispensers lies in the fact that the containers cannot be changed in size, depending on the amount of live bait disposed therein, thus requiring the various containers to be used, should the need arise for retaining a large amount of crickets. At the same time, should a fisherman require a small number of live crickets for any particular day, he will still have to use the larger size commercially available container, making it more difficult for the fisherman to retrieve one live bait from the container, and allowing the crickets to move more freely throughout the container, thus escaping the entrance of the dispensing conduit.
These and other disadvantages of the prior art are sought to be eliminated, and at least partially solved by the present invention.